What should I look for in an RMS system?

An RMS is software that manages your equipment inventory, bookings, quoting, crew scheduling, and invoicing in one place. If you're running more than a handful of jobs a month and still using spreadsheets, you almost certainly need one. The moment you have to check three different places to know whether a piece of gear is available, it's time to move. Spreadsheets don't scale, they break, and the mistakes they create are expensive.

An RMS is built around your equipment — inventory, bookings, job sheets, packing lists, invoices. A CRM is built around your clients and pipeline — contacts, deals, follow-ups, and communication history. Most AV companies use an RMS. Very few use a proper CRM alongside it. Your RMS probably has some basic client management built in, but it's not a replacement for a real CRM if you're doing serious sales activity. We wrote a full post on this topic.

As soon as you have more than one or two regular clients and a meaningful equipment list. Most people wait too long. If you're managing 20+ jobs a year and doing it in spreadsheets, you're already overdue. Rentman has a free tier for very small operations, so there's no financial reason to delay. The cost of a double-booking or a missing piece of kit on a live show is far higher than any monthly subscription.

Rentman and CurrentRMS are the two most common in the UK and European AV events market. Flex is popular in the US. IntelliEvent Lightning is used by larger corporate AV companies. For smaller or more generalist hire operations, some companies use EZRentOut or Point of Rental. If you're a UK or Irish AV business, you'll almost certainly end up evaluating Rentman and CurrentRMS first — and those are the two we integrate with directly at EventQuoter.

Rentman is a Dutch-built rental management platform designed specifically for AV, lighting, staging, and event production companies. It handles inventory, quoting, scheduling, crew management, and invoicing. It's well-suited to companies of all sizes — there's a free plan for small operations and enterprise pricing for larger ones. The interface takes some getting used to, but the underlying logic is solid once you learn it.

CurrentRMS is a UK-built rental management system popular with AV and event hire companies. It's browser-based, clean to use, and handles inventory, quoting, scheduling, and invoicing well. It tends to appeal to companies who want something straightforward without the steeper learning curve of some competitors. Its Xero integration is particularly strong, and the client-facing quote approval flow is one of the cleanest in the market.

Both do the core job well. Rentman tends to have more granular crew and transport management features. CurrentRMS is often considered cleaner and easier to get up and running quickly. Rentman has a free plan; CurrentRMS does not. For complex multi-crew, multi-vehicle operations, Rentman has the edge. For smaller teams wanting something slick to deploy quickly, CurrentRMS is often preferred. We work with both at EventQuoter — the right choice depends on your specific operation.

Technically yes. Practically, not well. Spreadsheets break. Double-bookings happen. Packing lists get missed. Invoices go out late. Most AV companies that don't use an RMS are leaving money on the table — either through mistakes or through the hours spent managing chaos manually. The question isn't really whether you need one. It's how much longer you're willing to manage without one.

Rentman has a free plan for very small operations and paid plans starting around €39/month per user. CurrentRMS pricing starts at approximately £75/month and scales with users and features. Most mid-size AV companies end up spending £100–500/month depending on team size. That said, the cost of not having one — in wasted time, missed invoices, and booking mistakes — is usually far higher than the subscription fee.

Getting the basics running — importing your inventory, setting up pricing, configuring quote templates — typically takes one to four weeks for most operations. Getting your whole team using it properly and refining the workflows can take two to three months. The more complete and clean your equipment data is before you start, the faster it goes. Most companies underestimate this timeline, and that's where implementation projects stall.

Your equipment lives in the system as a catalogue — each item with its quantity, description, photo, category, and pricing. When you add items to a quote or job, the RMS deducts them from available stock for that date range. You can see at a glance what's allocated, what's in maintenance, and what's free. This single feature — real-time availability — is what makes an RMS worth the investment.

Yes. Both Rentman and CurrentRMS support serial number tracking. This means you can assign specific physical units to a job — essential for high-value items like cameras, projectors, audio consoles, or processors where you need to know exactly which unit went where and when. It also supports insurance claims and loss investigations when something goes missing.

The RMS tracks quantities available for each date range. If you have 10 of a particular speaker and two jobs each need 6 on the same day, the system will flag the conflict. You can then decide whether to sub-rent from another supplier, negotiate with a client to adjust their dates, or decline one of the bookings. The key is that the conflict surfaces automatically — you're not finding out on the day.

Yes. Both Rentman and CurrentRMS let you log equipment as "in maintenance" or "out of service," removing it from the available pool automatically. Rentman has more detailed maintenance tracking — you can log service records, costs, technician notes, and schedule recurring maintenance intervals. For companies with a large fleet of equipment that requires regular PAT testing, lamp replacements, or calibration, this feature is genuinely valuable.

You can flag individual items as damaged or missing after the job. Both systems allow you to record replacement or repair costs and raise additional invoices to the client for those items. The damaged item is marked out of service until repaired or written off. It's not a fully automated process — you'll still need to manage the conversation with the client — but the system gives you the paper trail you need.

Both Rentman and CurrentRMS support sub-rental. You add sub-hired items to a job at their cost price and charge them out to the client at your markup rate. Sub-rental items appear on packing lists and job sheets like any other equipment, but are tracked separately for cost accounting purposes. This is important — it keeps your margin visible and your supplier costs reconciled properly at the end of each job.

Yes, though how you approach it depends on how tightly you want to track stock. Some companies add consumables as inventory items and track them strictly — so every reel of cable is accounted for. Others add a flat "consumables" charge to quotes without itemising them. Both approaches work in Rentman and CurrentRMS. Most AV companies land somewhere in between — tracking expensive items like cable reels and staging pins, and charging a flat rate for the rest.

When you create a quote or booking, you specify the event dates (including prep and collection days). The RMS checks those dates against all existing confirmed — and sometimes tentative — bookings to show you what's available. If something is short, it flags the shortage with the quantity you're missing. This replaces the "is that thing free?" conversation chain that eats up 20 minutes per job. It's the single most valuable feature in any RMS.

Rentman supports minimum stock quantity alerts for consumable items. CurrentRMS handles low stock through availability reporting rather than automatic alerts. For critical items, most AV companies also maintain a buffer — setting the available quantity in the system slightly lower than actual stock to preserve a backup unit. It's a simple trick that prevents your "last" piece of kit going out on every job.

Yes. Both Rentman and CurrentRMS let you create equipment groups or packages — a standard PA system, a corporate presentation package, or a full stage lighting rig, for example. When you add the package to a quote, it expands into its individual components, each with availability checked. This is a huge time-saver for companies that regularly quote similar configurations — you add one line and the whole kit list populates.

You create a new project or opportunity, set the event dates, and add equipment and labour line items. The system pulls pricing automatically from your rate cards. You can adjust individual lines, apply discounts, add subtotals and notes, then generate a formatted PDF quote to send to the client. Both systems let you send quotes directly via email from within the platform. The quote stays linked to the job, so when it's approved, it converts to a booking automatically.

Yes, once your pricing rules are configured. Based on the event duration, quantity, and any applicable discounts or rate tiers, the RMS calculates pricing automatically when you add items. You can override any line manually. The more complete your rate cards are when you set up the system, the less manual adjustment you'll need per quote. Getting your pricing logic right upfront is one of the most important setup tasks.

In both Rentman and CurrentRMS, you set a daily rate (and optionally weekly, monthly rates) per item in the equipment catalogue. You can then create pricing rules for volume discounts, long-term hire rates, or specific client tiers. The setup takes time initially, but once it's done, pricing becomes consistent and automatic. Many AV companies also build in a buffer on list rates so there's room to discount without touching margin.

Yes. Both systems support multiple price lists — so you can have a standard rate, a preferred client rate, and a long-term hire rate. CurrentRMS calls these "price lists," Rentman has a similar concept. You assign the appropriate price list to a client or a specific job. When you add items to that quote, the system automatically pulls the correct rate. It removes the "what discount do we give them again?" question that comes up on every returning client quote.

You add crew as line items — typically with a day rate or hourly rate. Both systems let you define standard labour categories (technician, engineer, project manager, rigger) with set rates, which you then add to quotes like any other line item. Labour shows separately from equipment on the client quote. You can choose whether to show crew at cost, at a marked-up rate, or as a blended day rate — depending on how transparent you want to be with the client.

Rentman lets you save project templates that include standard equipment lists and labour for common job types. CurrentRMS has a similar feature. This is a significant time-saver for companies that regularly quote similar events — a conference AV package, a corporate awards dinner, a hybrid event setup. You duplicate the template, adjust for the specific client requirements, and you're most of the way there. It's one of the features most AV companies underuse.

Both systems generate a PDF that you can email directly from within the platform or download and send from your own email client. CurrentRMS also has a client-facing online quote view — clients get a link, can review the quote in a browser, and approve or query it without downloading a PDF. Rentman has a similar online view through its customer portal. The PDF route is the most common, but the online approval flow is worth using when you can — it speeds up sign-off significantly.

CurrentRMS has a solid online quote approval flow — clients get a link, review the itemised quote, and can accept it with a digital signature. Rentman has a customer portal that handles this too. Online approval removes the "I'll forward it to my manager and let you know" delay that kills quote conversion. When a client can approve in two clicks from their phone on the way home from your initial meeting, your win rate goes up.

For a simple job with a standard equipment list, 15–30 minutes once you know the system well. For complex multi-day productions with custom configurations, it can take several hours. That's exactly why we built EventQuoter — to extract the job requirements from a client email and push the initial quote draft into the RMS in seconds, so your team reviews and adjusts rather than building from a blank screen. Book a demo to see how it works.

Yes. Both Rentman and CurrentRMS calculate pricing based on the duration of the hire period. You can set different rates for daily, weekly, and longer periods — so the per-day rate decreases for longer bookings automatically. Overtime and preparation or collection days can be configured as additional line items or built into separate rate rules. Multi-day pricing is one of those things that looks complex but both systems handle well once your rates are set up correctly.

Jobs appear on a calendar or timeline view. Equipment and crew are allocated to each job. You can see at a glance which days are busy, where equipment is committed, and which crew members are available. Most operations managers live in this view. It replaces the chaos of a shared Google Calendar and a WhatsApp group with a single source of truth that everyone in the business can see.

Yes, and this is one of the most used features in daily operation. Search for a date range and the system shows you what's available, what's allocated to confirmed bookings, what's on tentative hold, and what's in maintenance. You can also look at it from the equipment side — select any item and see its full booking calendar. No more "I think that projector is free" conversations.

When you add equipment to a confirmed or tentative booking, the RMS checks availability and flags any conflicts. It won't physically prevent you from overbooking — you can still override it if you know you're sub-renting or the conflict is acceptable — but it makes every clash visible and impossible to miss. Most double-bookings in AV businesses happen because no one checks. The RMS forces the check.

Yes — this is where an RMS really earns its keep. You can have dozens of jobs running simultaneously, each with their own equipment allocation, crew schedule, and client. The system tracks them all independently while flagging shared resources. For busy periods — conference season, Christmas parties, summer events — this visibility is the difference between running smoothly and running on adrenaline.

Rentman has strong transport and logistics features — you can plan vehicle loads, assign drivers, and map delivery routes. It's one of the areas where Rentman has a clear advantage. CurrentRMS covers the basics of delivery scheduling but is less detailed on the logistics side. For companies doing significant delivery and collection work, Rentman's logistics module is genuinely useful and can replace a separate route-planning spreadsheet entirely.

Yes, automatically from the job data. Once a job is confirmed, you can print or export a packing list showing every item, its quantity, any case or bag reference, and prep notes. This replaces manually written warehouse sheets and dramatically reduces missing items at load-out. When your packing list comes from the same system as the quote, the client always gets exactly what they approved — nothing more, nothing less, nothing missing.

You edit the job directly in the system — add or remove items, adjust quantities, change dates. The RMS recalculates availability and pricing instantly. If the change affects the client invoice, you can issue a revised quote or an additional order. The critical advantage is that the warehouse packing list updates automatically when the job changes. No more "the client added two more screens but the warehouse doesn't know" situations.

Rentman and CurrentRMS both let you duplicate a job, which is the most common approach for repeat bookings. True recurring booking automation (like calendar apps have for weekly meetings) isn't a standard feature. But duplicating last year's job and adjusting the dates takes about two minutes — and you get the full equipment list, crew notes, and pricing from the previous year as a starting point. Most AV companies find this works well enough.

Both systems have a visual planner — a Gantt-style timeline showing all jobs across weeks and months. You can see equipment allocation, crew assignments, and job status at a glance. Colour coding by job status (confirmed, tentative, quoted) helps readability. This view is what most operations managers check first thing every morning. It answers the question "what's happening, and do we have everything we need?" in one screen.

Yes. Both Rentman and CurrentRMS support status-based colour coding — confirmed, tentative, and quoted jobs appear in different colours. You can filter the calendar by client, project type, crew member, or location to narrow the view. For companies running multiple crews or working across different venues simultaneously, the filter capability is what keeps the calendar readable rather than just a mass of overlapping bars.

Both have basic client record management — contact details, company information, booking history. What they don't have is a proper CRM. No deal pipeline, no follow-up sequences, no email tracking, no call logging. For pure relationship management and proactive sales activity, most serious sales teams need a dedicated CRM alongside the RMS. We explored this question in depth on the blog.

Yes, you can add notes to client records and to individual jobs. But it's basic note-taking rather than full contact history. There's no automatic logging of emails sent or received, no call recording, no structured activity timeline. Most AV companies use the notes field in the RMS for job-specific information and keep relationship notes informally — which is why important client context tends to live in someone's head rather than anywhere the whole team can see it.

Both Rentman and CurrentRMS support multiple contacts per company. You can store different people — the booking coordinator, the finance contact, the production manager — all linked to the same company record. When sending a quote, you choose which contact to address it to. This is important for larger clients where the person who approves the brief and the person who approves the invoice are two different people.

Yes. You can look up any client and see their full quote and booking history, total revenue generated, and any outstanding balances. This is genuinely useful for understanding which clients are your highest value. It also tells you things like: how many of their quotes you actually converted, how often they book, and whether their average job size is growing or shrinking. Most AV companies have this data and never look at it.

Basic invoice reminders and payment follow-ups are available in both systems. CurrentRMS has some automation for overdue invoices. For more sophisticated sequences — chasing un-answered quotes, re-engaging clients who haven't booked in six months, nurturing new enquiries — you'd need a separate CRM or automation tool. This is a genuine gap in both systems, and it's one of the main reasons AV companies lose repeat business without realising it.

CurrentRMS has a clean client-facing quote view where clients can review and approve quotes online without logging in — they just click a link. Rentman has a customer portal where clients can see their bookings and outstanding documents. Neither is a full self-service portal where clients can initiate bookings themselves, but both cover the online approval flow that clients actually use day to day.

CurrentRMS has an "opportunity" status for potential bookings that haven't been confirmed. Rentman handles this through project statuses like "quote" or "option." Neither has a proper pipeline view with stages and conversion tracking. For active lead management, most AV companies keep a separate tool — or use EventQuoter to extract the lead information from an enquiry email and get it into the RMS as a tentative project in seconds.

Yes. Both systems support client-specific price lists. You assign a price list to a client record — so whenever you create a quote for that client, the system automatically applies their rate. A long-standing corporate client might be on a 15% discount rate. A one-time enquiry gets standard pricing. This removes the negotiation from the quote-building process and ensures your discounts are consistent and deliberate rather than ad hoc.

Both systems let you attach documents to client records and individual jobs — uploaded PDFs, signed contracts, insurance certificates, event briefs. Generating and tracking contracts natively isn't really a core RMS function. Most companies send contracts via DocuSign or a similar e-signature tool and then upload the signed copy to the RMS record. It's an extra step, but it keeps everything in one place for each job.

Not natively in either system. Post-event feedback is outside the scope of what an RMS is designed for. If you want to track client satisfaction formally, you'd send a separate survey — Google Forms, Typeform, or a dedicated tool — and record the results manually against the client record. Most AV companies don't do this at all, which is a missed opportunity. A simple "how did we do?" email after every show costs nothing and tells you a lot.

Yes, both Rentman and CurrentRMS support crew assignment to jobs. You add team members to the system with their roles and day rates, then assign them to specific jobs. They appear on job sheets and scheduling views alongside the equipment. The crew calendar sits next to the equipment calendar — so you can see availability of people and gear in the same view, which is exactly how you actually plan a show.

Rentman lets you assign crew to jobs and send them job-specific booking requests directly from the system. Crew members receive an email with the job details and can accept or decline. Once confirmed, they can access their schedule, call sheet, and job documents through the Rentman app or their web login. It replaces the WhatsApp crew confirmation process with something traceable and documented.

Yes. In Rentman, crew have their own login with a restricted view showing their upcoming jobs, call times, venue details, and any job-specific documents. CurrentRMS handles this similarly through its crew portal. The key benefit is that crew can check their schedule themselves at any time without calling the office — and you have a record of when they confirmed, which matters when someone claims they didn't know about a job.

Rentman has timesheet functionality where crew log their actual hours against jobs, which you can then compare to planned hours. CurrentRMS has basic hour tracking but it's less detailed. Neither replaces a dedicated HR or payroll system. But having planned hours in the RMS and actual hours submitted by crew in the same place gives you an early warning when a job is running over — before it becomes an invoice dispute.

Yes. Most AV companies have a mix of employed staff and freelancers, and both systems handle this well. You add freelancers as crew members with their day rates, assign them to jobs, and track what they're owed. The system doesn't process payments — that goes through your accounts process — but it gives you the visibility you need to plan which freelancers are committed, who is available, and what the total crew cost for a job will be.

You set a day rate or hourly rate for each crew member in the system. The RMS calculates planned labour cost based on scheduled hours. Rentman supports configurable overtime rules. The figure is an estimate — actual pay is confirmed once timesheets are submitted. What this gives you is a clear cost projection per job before it happens, so you know your margin before you confirm the booking rather than discovering it on the invoice.

Rentman allows you to store crew qualifications and certification expiry dates, and can flag when crew assigned to a job don't hold the required certifications. CurrentRMS has a more limited version of this feature. For companies working at regulated venues or undertaking rigging, electrical, or elevated work where specific licences are mandatory, this is a compliance feature that can prevent you from accidentally sending unqualified crew.

Rentman has a dedicated mobile app that crew use to view their schedules, access job sheets, check in, and log hours. It's a proper native app and works well on site. CurrentRMS is a mobile-responsive web app — it works on phones and tablets through the browser, but there's no native app. For warehouse and field use where crew need quick access to packing lists and call times, Rentman's mobile app is noticeably more capable.

Both systems allow job-specific notifications — confirming assignments, sending call sheets, updating crew when job details change. But they're not messaging tools. For day-to-day communication, most AV teams still use WhatsApp groups or Slack alongside the RMS. The RMS handles the official record: who is confirmed, what their call time is, what the job details are. The chat tools handle the informal conversation around it.

Yes. Both systems have role-based permissions. Warehouse staff can see packing lists and delivery notes without accessing financial data. Crew get a restricted view of their own schedule and job documents. Account managers see their clients and quotes. Directors and managers get full access. This is important once you have more than a small team — you don't want warehouse staff accidentally editing a live quote, and you don't need every crew member seeing your client pricing.

Once a job is marked as complete, both Rentman and CurrentRMS let you convert it to an invoice in a couple of clicks. The invoice pulls through all the line items, quantities, and pricing from the approved quote. Whether invoicing happens automatically without a manual trigger depends on your workflow setup — most companies review before sending rather than fully automating, because jobs often have post-event adjustments to account for.

Both systems track invoice status — unpaid, partially paid, and paid. You can see outstanding balances on client records and in aged debtor reports. Rentman and CurrentRMS both have invoice reminder functionality, though the level of automation varies. For serious credit control — chasing overdue invoices, applying late payment charges, escalating debt — most companies do that work in Xero where the accounting tools are more powerful.

Yes. You can create deposit invoices manually in both systems. Neither has fully automated staged payment schedules, but the workflow of issuing a 50% deposit invoice on booking confirmation and a final invoice after the event is straightforward in both. CurrentRMS also has Stripe integration that allows clients to pay invoices online by card — which can significantly speed up deposit collection.

Yes. Rentman has a native Xero integration that syncs invoices, payments, and client records between the two systems. Once connected, invoices raised in Rentman push to Xero automatically. Payments recorded in Xero update the invoice status in Rentman. It removes the need to enter data twice and is one of the most commonly used integrations among Rentman customers in the UK and Ireland.

Yes — and it's one of CurrentRMS's strongest features. The integration is well-established, reliable, and keeps both systems in sync automatically. Invoices created in CurrentRMS push to Xero. Payments recorded in Xero update the invoice status in CurrentRMS. Client records stay aligned. For UK companies using Xero as their accounting system, the CurrentRMS–Xero integration is one of the most polished in the RMS market.

Both systems support configurable tax rates — so you can set up VAT at the correct rate for your territory and apply it automatically to all invoices. Multi-currency support exists in both but is more capable in Rentman, which is better suited to international operations. For straightforward UK or Irish VAT invoicing, either system handles it well. For complex multi-currency or cross-border tax scenarios, verify the specifics before you commit.

Yes. Both Rentman and CurrentRMS have financial reporting built in — revenue by period, by client, by job type, outstanding invoices, and profitability summaries. The built-in reports cover the most common management questions. For deeper analysis — margin by equipment category, revenue by venue type, year-on-year comparisons — most companies export to Excel or lean on Xero's reporting tools where the data is richer.

Both systems support credit notes — you raise a credit note against an invoice, which reduces the outstanding balance or creates a credit on the client account. Refunds themselves are usually processed through your payment provider or bank and then matched in Xero or your accounting software. The RMS records the credit note. The accounting system handles the actual money movement. Keep both in sync and the reconciliation stays clean.

Yes. For any job, you can see the planned revenue against the planned costs — giving you a margin figure before the job even happens. Rentman shows a margin summary per project. CurrentRMS does the same. Actual profitability (accounting for real crew hours, unexpected sub-rentals, and any damage) is better calculated once you reconcile in Xero post-job. But having a planned margin in the RMS before you confirm a booking is what stops you accepting jobs that look good on paper and lose money in reality.

Rentman has a purchase order function for managing sub-rental and supplier costs — you can raise a PO against a job, track what's been ordered, and match it to supplier invoices. CurrentRMS handles sub-rental as a separate workflow but doesn't have a full PO module in the same way. If your operation involves significant bought-in services, equipment hire from other suppliers, or subcontracted crew, Rentman's PO functionality is more developed and worth evaluating carefully.

Rentman integrates natively with Xero, QuickBooks, and a number of warehouse scanning and barcode tools. It also has a full REST API that allows custom integrations with almost anything — which is how EventQuoter connects to it. The official integration list is relatively small, but the API compensates for that. Most of the powerful integrations around Rentman are API-based rather than native plugins.

CurrentRMS integrates natively with Xero, QuickBooks, and Stripe for online payments. Like Rentman, it also has a REST API that opens up custom integration possibilities. Its Xero integration is particularly strong and well-regarded. Stripe integration is a notable advantage — it lets clients pay invoices online by card directly through the quote or invoice link, which speeds up deposit collection significantly.

Yes, both have REST APIs. Rentman's API is well-documented and actively maintained. CurrentRMS also has a full REST API. These APIs are exactly what power EventQuoter — we use them to push structured quote data directly into the RMS as a project or opportunity, without any manual data entry on your team's part. If you're evaluating an RMS and API access matters to you, ask the vendor for their API documentation before you sign up.

Not natively, but through the API or via integration platforms like Zapier or Make (formerly Integromat), yes. The most common integration is syncing new enquiries from a CRM to the RMS as a tentative project, and syncing confirmed bookings back to the CRM for pipeline tracking. This is a custom integration rather than a plug-and-play connection, and it typically needs a developer or an experienced integration consultant to set up properly.

EventQuoter uses the Rentman API. When you paste a client enquiry email into EventQuoter, the AI extracts the event details and equipment requirements. You review the proposed quote draft. With one click, it pushes a Project Request into your Rentman account — with the client, event dates, venue, and line items already populated. Your team then refines and confirms. The process that used to take 45–90 minutes takes a few minutes. Book a demo to see it live.

Exactly the same concept as Rentman. EventQuoter uses the CurrentRMS API to push the extracted quote data as an Opportunity into your CurrentRMS account. Client details, event dates, and line items go in automatically. You review, adjust if needed, and send the quote to the client. The whole process takes minutes instead of the manual build time that was previously unavoidable. Book a demo and we'll show you.

The RMS itself doesn't generate quotes automatically — you still build them item by item inside the system. What EventQuoter does is sit in front of that process: it reads the client enquiry, determines what they need, and creates the initial quote structure in the RMS automatically. Your team starts from a complete draft rather than a blank sheet. That shift — from building to reviewing — is where the time saving comes from.

Rentman has Google Calendar sync, so confirmed jobs appear in your Google Calendar. CurrentRMS supports iCal export which works with most calendar apps. For email, neither system natively connects to Outlook or Gmail the way a CRM would — your inbox and your RMS remain separate. Quote confirmation emails are sent from within the RMS, but your incoming client emails still live in your email client. This is the gap where EventQuoter adds value — reading those incoming emails and extracting the data into the RMS.

Not directly out of the box. You'd need a middleware solution — Zapier, Make, or a webhook — to pass web enquiry data into the RMS. Alternatively, EventQuoter fits naturally into this flow: the enquiry comes in by email, your team pastes it into EventQuoter, and it enters the RMS as a structured opportunity in seconds. It's not full automation, but it's faster than building a quote from scratch and works with any enquiry — form submissions, email, or even a voice note.

Rentman supports webhooks natively — so you can trigger workflows in Zapier or Make when specific events happen (a new project is created, a quote is approved, an invoice is paid). CurrentRMS also supports webhooks. This opens up a significant range of automation possibilities without needing custom development: automatically notifying your team when a quote is approved, logging new jobs in a spreadsheet, or sending a Slack message when a deposit is received.

Standard reports include revenue by period, outstanding invoices, equipment utilisation, job profitability, quote conversion rate, and crew cost summaries. Both systems have report builders that let you filter and export data. Most management questions about the business — how much have we invoiced this month, what's outstanding, which jobs made money — are answerable from the built-in reports. For deeper analysis, most companies export to Excel or use Xero.

Yes. Both systems can report on revenue per equipment item across a date range. This is one of the most useful reports for purchasing decisions — knowing that your two main projectors generate three times the hire revenue of your entire cable stock helps you prioritise what to buy more of. It also tells you which items are sitting in the warehouse barely used — candidates for disposal or sub-hire out to other companies.

CurrentRMS tracks quote status — sent, approved, declined — so you can calculate your win rate from the data. Rentman does the same through project statuses. Neither presents this as a built-in dashboard metric out of the box, but the underlying data is there. Most AV companies who actively track their win rate do so in a spreadsheet. If you find you're winning fewer than 50% of the quotes you send, that's worth investigating — and responding faster is usually the first thing to fix.

Utilisation is the percentage of available days that a piece of equipment is out on hire. Both systems can show you booking data per item over a period. Rentman has specific utilisation reporting built into the platform. A well-run AV hire operation typically targets 60–70% utilisation on core inventory. Consistently above that and you need more stock. Consistently below and you're carrying assets that aren't earning their cost — and should probably be sold or sub-hired to other companies.

Yes. For any job, you can see the planned revenue against the planned crew cost — giving you a labour cost percentage before the job happens. After the job, once timesheets are submitted, you can compare actual hours to planned. This comparison is one of the most useful management reports for understanding where your margin is going. Labour overruns on live shows are one of the most common ways AV companies quietly lose money on jobs that looked profitable at quote stage.

Both systems allow CSV export from most reports and lists. It's not always elegant — you'll sometimes need to clean the data before it's useful in a spreadsheet — but the data is there and exportable. For more automated or structured reporting, using the API to pull data directly into a Google Sheet or a BI tool like Looker Studio is a cleaner route, though it requires some technical setup.

You can get close to this answer from the revenue and job data in the RMS. Filtering jobs by client or job type and comparing revenue totals gives you a directional view. True profitability — accounting for all costs including crew, sub-rentals, transport, and overhead allocation — is better calculated in Xero once everything is reconciled. But the RMS view is enough to tell you that your conference clients generate more revenue than your party hire clients, even if the margin comparison is less clear.

Yes. Looking at confirmed and tentative bookings in the pipeline, both systems give you a forward view of expected revenue and resource commitments. It's not a sophisticated forecasting model, but for most AV companies, being able to see three months of confirmed bookings on the calendar and calculate the associated revenue is exactly the forecast they need. It's also useful for spotting quiet periods early — when you can see a gap coming, you have time to do something about it.

Start with your equipment catalogue — export it to CSV and import it into the RMS. Then configure your pricing. Then add your active clients. Don't try to import historical bookings — it's rarely worth the effort. Get the system running for new bookings from a specific go-live date and let the historical data live in the spreadsheet as an archive. The biggest mistake is trying to move everything at once. Move what matters for the future and leave the past where it is.

Both systems have a CSV import function for equipment. You'll need to prepare your data in the required format — name, category, quantity, daily rate, and any additional fields the system supports. The quality of your import determines how quickly you can start building real quotes. Messy data going in means a messy system to work with — items in the wrong categories, incorrect quantities, missing pricing. Spend time on the data preparation before you import. It saves hours of cleanup later.

For most AV companies: one to two weeks to get the system running at a basic level and build your first real quote. Two to three months to get the team fully trained and the workflows refined to the point where it's genuinely faster than the old way. The biggest variable is how complete and clean your equipment data is going in. Most companies who struggle with implementation have a data problem, not a system problem.

Getting the team to actually use it consistently. The technical setup is manageable — importing inventory, configuring pricing, setting up templates. The culture change is harder. Getting everyone off the WhatsApp job lists and manual spreadsheets and into the system requires discipline and a clear mandate from management. Start with the warehouse team. Once packing lists come from the RMS, everyone else follows — because they have to.

You can, but there's no automated migration path between the two. You'd export your equipment catalogue and client list from one system and import into the other in CSV format. Bookings and historical data don't transfer cleanly. Most companies treat a platform switch as a fresh start with clean data rather than attempting a full migration. If you're considering switching, the clean-start approach — with an improved equipment catalogue and better pricing setup — often produces a better result than trying to move everything across.

Rentman has an extensive knowledge base, video tutorials, live onboarding sessions, and an active community. CurrentRMS has documentation, webinars, email support, and a helpful user community. Both have support teams who are generally responsive. The learning curve is real for both — budget dedicated time for it and don't expect your team to figure it out alongside their normal workload. A focused setup week is far more effective than learning in dribs and drabs over three months.

For basic usage — checking availability, looking up packing lists, reviewing quotes — most team members are functional within a few hours of focused training. For building quotes, managing crew schedules, and running reports, expect two to four weeks before people feel genuinely confident. For the administrator configuring and optimising the system, it's an ongoing process. The people who get the most from an RMS are the ones who invest time in understanding it properly rather than just learning the minimum to get by.

Consider your priorities. If crew and transport management are critical to your operation, Rentman has the edge. If you want something clean and quick to deploy with a polished Xero integration, CurrentRMS is often the preferred choice. If budget is tight at the start, Rentman's free plan gives you a way to begin without financial commitment. Most importantly — trial both before deciding. The interface you'll actually enjoy using every day matters more than any feature comparison spreadsheet.

An RMS helps you quote accurately. But speed is still a bottleneck — someone still has to open the system, build the quote from scratch, and check availability item by item. That's where EventQuoter changes things. By extracting the job requirements from a client email and pushing a complete draft quote into the RMS in seconds, we cut the time from enquiry to quote sent by 80–90%. Faster quotes win more jobs. That's been consistently true in every AV company we've worked with. We wrote about why speed wins.

The biggest returns come from three areas: eliminating double-bookings (the cost of one serious kit conflict more than pays for years of RMS fees), reducing manual admin time across quoting, packing lists, and invoicing, and improving equipment utilisation visibility so you know what to buy more of and what to stop hauling around. Most AV companies who implement an RMS properly see clear payback within the first six months. The ones who don't see the return are usually the ones who set it up but never fully committed to using it.

Yes, for very small operations. The free plan covers core inventory and booking functionality with limits on the number of users and some advanced features. It's a sensible way to start — you get to learn the system properly and understand whether it works for your business before spending anything. As your team grows and you need crew management, advanced reporting, or transport scheduling, you'll hit the limits and need to upgrade. But as a starting point, the free tier is genuinely usable.

Your equipment catalogue. Full stop. Everything else in the system — availability checking, quoting, packing lists, utilisation reports, kit bundles — depends entirely on your inventory data being accurate, complete, and consistently structured. Get your equipment list right before you do anything else. Correct names. Correct categories. Correct quantities. Correct pricing. Photos where possible. If that foundation is solid, the rest of the system works the way it's supposed to. If it's messy, everything built on top of it will be messy too — and no amount of features will fix that.